paint it red.... same color as your safelight (if your safelight is red that is)

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
Hmm, hmm, hmm,...
I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal

I painted mine black, but that's because I print color sometimes. I haven't really tested if it makes a difference.

That's what you need to do with those silly Saunders yellow easels and all the others that have not stuck with either white or neutral gray. Yellow easels, red easels, shellac painted wooden baseboards etc. all tend to introduce noise into the colour printing process. The choice between white, neutral gray or black is, I think, more a question of application than much else. If the frame or baseboard will be used as a a reproduction rig then black is probably the best colour. If its for colour and B&W and one uses single weight or vellum stocks then gray formica is a good choice. Gray paint, however, tends to be less neutral than the matted whites that are available so if its about painting then I'd select white. A good flat black does not hurt but its less than practical and, in general, provides little advantage over gray or even white-- and there is always the possibility to sandwidth a piece of black board between a white base and paper.

No difference. Not in the scan, but more importantly, not by inspecting them under a variety of lighting (i.e. from daylight, up to and including a 1kw security lamp). There is actually a very, very, slight hint of a suspicion of a suggestion of a possibility of extra density in the foil strip when viewed by transmitted light on the light box, but other than that, they are all identical.

Cheers, Bob.

The answer, as usual, is to test and find out. Thanks for doing that Bob!

I was a bit surprised myself, especially with the silver foil result which I though would be a "control" and show a clear difference!

I just did another quick check with a small light and my exposure meter and I find the paper attenuates the light by a surprising amount: just over 3 stops each way. So that makes a total of 6 stops less light hitting the emulsion from underneath even if you used a mirror under the paper... Which I guess, explains the results: minus 6 stops extra exposure is simply not going to show. That's using Ilford MG-IV RC, MG-IV fibre attenuates by 3.5 stops each way so would show even less effect. The MG-IV RC is the thinnest paper I have.

Cheers, Bob.

P.S. This is the great thing about the Nova vertical "processor": because the chemicals are left in the slots, it took me 30 minutes to expose and process the RC test strips because I didn't have to faff about mixing chemicals and washing trays up afterwards. Digital printers eat your hearts out!